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Allawi says Iraq in state of civil war

AM - Monday, 20 March , 2006 08:12:00

Reporter: Mark Willacy

TONY EASTLEY: Today marks three years since the US-led coalition launched the first missiles into Baghdad, heralding the start of the invasion of Iraq and the end of Saddam Hussein.

Now, three-years on, Iraq's former interim prime minister says his country is in the grip of civil war.

Iyad Allawi says dozens of people are dying each day, and he warns that unless something is done to stop the violence Iraq will soon reach the point of no return.

He was speaking as insurgents launched mortars at Shi'ite pilgrims gathered for a religious commemoration in the holy city of Karbala.

Middle East Correspondent Mark Willacy reports.

(Sound of mortar fire)

MARK WILLACY: Every night in Baghdad people disappear, and every morning dozens of bodies are found scattered around the capital. Some of the corpses belong to Shi'ites, shot in the head and dumped in rubbish tips. Others belong to Sunnis, strangled and left to rot in ditches or mini-buses.

The sectarian killing has intensified since last month's bombing of the Golden Mosque of Samarra, a shrine holy to Iraq's Shi'ites. Hundreds of people, mainly Sunnis, have died in revenge attacks, but the US military denies that the country has descended into civil war.

Others, though, think differently.

Iyad Allawi is the former interim Iraqi Prime Minister.

IYAD ALLAWI: We are losing a day, as an average, 50 to 60 people throughout the country, if not more. If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is.

MARK WILLACY: Speaking to the BBC, Mr Allawi warned that a political vacuum was allowing insurgents to push Iraq closer to sectarian conflict.

IYAD ALLAWI: I think Iraq is facing… is in the middle of a crisis. Maybe we have not reached the point of no return yet, but we are moving towards this point.

MARK WILLACY: And Iyad Allawi argues once that point is reached, it won't be just Iraq that tears apart. He fears that sectarianism will spread throughout the Middle East, and that even Europe and the United States will not be spared the violent consequences.

(Sound of bagpipes)

Arriving in Baghdad to the wail of bagpipes, the British Defence Secretary John Reid was at pains to paint a more optimistic picture of the situation in Iraq.

JOHN REID: It's certainly true that terrorists are carrying out a frenetic campaign. It is also certainly true that people are retreating a little into their sectarian enclaves. But there is no civil war, and against all of the problems, let's measure the progress, not least the democratic control by Iraqis of their own future.

MARK WILLACY: Fearing they'll fall victim to sectarian violence, thousands of Iraqi Shi'ites living in mainly Sunni neighbourhoods in the capital have packed up their homes and moved to what they regard as safer suburbs.

Sunnis in Shi'ite neighbourhoods are now reportedly doing the same thing. Many worry that the Iraqi capital could soon be just a patchwork of sectarian enclaves.

Three years on from the US-led invasion, Iraq remains in the grip of violence, though now the fear isn't so much a stray US shell or missile, it's having your front door kicked in in the middle of the night by a Sunni or Shi'ite death squad.